Hello all, I realize there are moraine threads, but i am new and just looking for more info. Does anyone go up to moraine and break up some ice for ducks? I also thought about trying to scout out nearby streams if things are frozen up (Maybe this mini heat wave thawed something up) I am looking to get some mallard decoys, would that be enough to throw out and maybe see some action? Thanks for reply's

I had a couple of hours to kill this afternoon and drove all around the lake glassine it for birds. I only saw 6 goldeneye. The rest may have been out in the fields feeding, or as usual... There was nothing there with everything being thawed out

This time of the year there is not much of a migration left, most of the birds are south already. Thaws do not move ducks, cold fronts do, so watch for the next front and be there just ahead of the front.now for Moraine, scout where ducks like to be this time of the year, (hint) it is different than early season. Hunting on the edge of the ice has produces for me there.

Thaws are good if you have birds around. If there are no birds around open water is just about useless.

Take this year for instance. The freeze came and pushed all the birds off the small and medium ponds to the large water which stayed open longer (good hunting). The large body of water froze over and the birds either migrated or moved to where the water was flowing and set up home there for a while. With this thaw, the water that was moving is now over or close to the tops of the banks providing even more places for the birds with abundant food sources and safety. Fields that were dry now have small ponds in them.

Now if you can find what birds that are left you can have some outstanding days of hunting BUT you have to find them and with the amount of water that is now present that is going to be hard but can be done. You have the same conditions that you had at the start of the season but with less birds that have been pressured for the last 2 months. Extra stealth is required.

In the future you have to remember when and where you shot the birds and at what time of the year. File it away so that when the conditions repeat you have a good starting point of where to hunt or not to hunt. Where there a lot of birds or a few small groups or just the occasional bird. Time of day and weather conditions. Snow or no snow. Big migration or none.

I'll be heading for a spot that I hunt sometimes during the late season in an hour. There are very few birds. Maybe a chance or two of getting any shooting if any. It's a small 20 acre swamp that the birds use when the thaw comes and pushed them off the river. It won't be a great hunt but at this time of the year you have to take what you can get. I'll hunt it today and give it a rest for a couple of days and than come back.

The biggest thing that you have to remember at this time of the year is SAFETY. A slip along a stream or river and a dunk in the water is life threatening for you and your dog. Access any situation before you go barging in like a bull in a china shop.